173 Tortured Man ; Good Prisoners

"What… is that?" Krul mutters while staring at the abomination that's in front of us.

"It seems to be a human corpse," Saturnus says.

"Irene?" I ask while turning my head to look at the taciturn girl.

"I thought Father liked this?" she says in a pained tone.

Seeing her like this, I let out a sigh before patting her head and inquiring,

"What exactly made you believe that to be the case?"

"An entity similar to me did it and always got praised…" she murmurs.

Eh? Oh… she's referring to Aruru.

"Well," I say, "It's not like I'm mad at you. In fact, I find this… 'work of art' truly amazing."

"Really?!" excitement covers her face as she looks up at me with sparkling eyes.

"Of course," I simply reply.

"I can't blame you for calling it a work of art," Krul remarks, "This truly is something that can't be replicated that easily."

Agreeing with her, I nod my head as I observe the mutilated body of a muscular man.

This room that we're in is right beside where the jail is, with the staircase leading to it being different from the one that leads to the jail. Based on the way the room is designed and the things present in it, it's obviously a torture room.

Even so, the man that has been tortured is in a state indicating that the torture methods used are far beyond what's normally done.

His eyes have been gouged out and his nose has been ripped off.

Streams of blood are flowing out of where his ears used to be while the two detached organs are in the corpse's open mouth, while broken bits of what seems to be his teeth and bones are hanging out of his flesh.

His jawbone is completely broken, while his cheekbones have been crushed.

Leaving his head aside, his body isn't in a much better condition.

First, his arms are twisted beyond repair in a way that shouldn't be possible unless extreme force is used. The fact that Irene claims to be able to fight against Binary Factors shows that her strength is more than enough to do this.

Second, there is the fact that his torso is riddled with holes, forming a giant symbol that's similar to the one I have under my right eye.

Finally, his legs have been twisted together in a gruesome manner that seems to have shattered every bone near the man's knees.

Thankfully, I had sent Siesta away earlier to take care of the castle, so she doesn't get to witness this.

Taking one last look at the corpse, I turn my head to face Irene and ask,

"You did all of this on your own?"

"Yes!" she replies without any hesitation.

I take a moment to process the thought of Irene being somewhere near Aruru's level in both cuteness and lethality.

Speaking of small and blonde-haired, I sincerely hope that Gula doesn't turn out similar to these two...

"So, Creator likes this now, huh?" Saturnus mutters with a thoughtful look on her face.

…

Forget it. It's not like this will be detrimental to me in the future anyway.

These girls are my trusted companions, after all.

"Victor," Krul calls out to me, "I think you should check on the state of the other prisoners."

"That's right," Saturnus adds, "There might be more of them that require punishment!"

Seeing her getting so excited, I ruminate over whether I should take her along or not...

"Come on, Creator," she says, "What are we waiting for?"

Whatever. It's those guys' fault for getting caught in an assassination attempt.

---3rd POV---

"Do you think she will return?" Jeanette asks Sheffield who is lazily lying on the bed.

"I don't know," Sheffield nonchalantly replies.

"It's all that man's fault that we're here," Jeanette complains as she kicks the ground.

Hearing this, Sheffield raises her body from the bed and says in a neutral tone,

"You're lucky to be alive, for all you know, you could've ended up the same way Jacques did."

"I know that," Jeanette responds, "But, still, couldn't he trust us a little better?"

Sheffield takes a moment to think before replying,

"I'm sure he's already treating us good."

"How?"

"Look," Sheffield says while pointing at the cell opposite to theirs where a blonde-haired man is pitifully lying on the ground along with three other men who are in a similar state, "Do you still think that we're not being treated well?"

"What's with you?" Jeanette says while looking at Sheffield in the eyes, "You seem to like taking that man's side."

Sheffield shakes her as a response before saying,

"That's not it. I just believe it to be pointless to blame everything onto him when we were the ones who started all this."

"For a woman as vicious as yourself, you sure are easygoing," Jeanette comments.

Seeing Sheffield ignore her, Jeanette scoffs before walking to the other bed in the cell and lying on it.

"I swear, if I get out from here, the first thing I'm going to do is choke that smug-faced prince to death," she mutters hatefully.

"Is that so?" a loud voice suddenly resounds in the place as four figures walk down from the stairs.

Alarmed, Jeanette shoots up from the bed and looks in the direction that the voice seems to have come from, while Sheffield just lies down without showing the least bit of interest in the matter.

"Good evening, ladies," Victor says as he abruptly appears inside the cell with a grin on his lips.

Seeing Jeanette in a defensive stance, Victor shakes his head and says,

"You don't need to be so afraid. If I wanted to kill you, I would've done so long ago without you being able to resist in any way."

Seemingly realizing that he has a point, Jeanette stand more comfortably before asking in a cold tone,

"Why are you here? We've already given you all the information that you needed."

"Wrong," Victor casually says, "You didn't tell me anything about the chemical that's being used to weaponize humans."

"What?" Jeanette questions with a confused expression, while Sheffield looks over at Victor with a curious expression on her face.

"What are you talking about?" Jeanette inquires.

"Don't play dumb," Victor replies, "I've already encountered two cases of this occurring."

Victor then begins to recount what transpired in the fort and the town while letting the needless parts out.

"You're lying," Jeanette says in a disbelieving tone, "There is no way that His Majesty would do that."

"Lying?" Victor presses, "Why would I need to lie to you? You seem to be forgetting the fact that you're just a prisoner."

Realizing that he's right, Jeanette expression takes a turn for the worst as she asks,

"Did that truly happen?"

"Why else am I here?" Victor responds before letting out a sigh and saying, "Don't delay me any further. Tell me everything you know regarding this matter, lest you want to experience what it's like to be tortured and brainwashed."

"Hey, Victor," Krul calls out as she looks at the cell where the males are being held, "These guys don't seem like they will last any longer."

Victor's attention is shifted from the two girls to the cell as he thinks for a moment before shouting,

"Guards!"

A few seconds later, two lightly armored men walk down the stairs before saluting, "Your Highness!"

"Get these swines some food and water."

"Yes, Your Highness," one of the two responds before heading back up the stairs while the other one respectfully asks,

"Your Highness, would you like me to open the cell door?"

"Do it," Victor says dismissively as he shifts his focus back to Sheffield and Jeanette.

"Are you going to be talking any time soon?"

---1st POV---

How unfortunate. I wasn't able to get much information out of them this time around.

From what I can tell, Joseph seems to have gone the extra mile in being cautious by keeping his plans hidden even from his close aides.

In other words, the two girls weren't aware of this at all, to the point that each one of them shared their thoughts of why would Joseph do this.

Apparently, Joseph is extremely set on killing me, not caring about anything else at all.

"Irene," I say, "Isn't this somewhat similar to what a Second Rank Unknown would do?"

"Father is right," she replies, "This does seem like the actions of such a being."

The other girls other than Saturnus and Krul are completely confused about what we're talking about.

Taking this chance, I explain to them,

"From the looks of it, Joseph de Gallia is a corrupted individual that wishes to bring doom upon all the living creatures in this world."

"That's absurd!" Jeanette exclaims upon hearing my claim.

"Oh?" I voice while peering into her eyes, "Are you saying that everything we spoke of until now isn't absurd?"

Jeanette looks like she just swallowed a bitter pill as she looks down at the ground.

I will let them be for now. They will have plenty of time to think of what they want to in the future.

"Let's get going," I state as I get up from the sofa I had created especially for this occasion.

The rest of the girls that came along also get up and follow me as I leave the cell.

"Wait!" Sheffield calls out.

Hm? I turn around to look at her and ask,

"What's wrong?"

She takes in a deep breath before resolutely saying,

"I want to see."

"See what?"

"What you claim is happening."

"You want me to take you to the battlefield?"

As a response to my inquiry, Sheffield nods her head in confirmation.

Would it be a problem if I took her with myself? I don't think so. All I need to do is keep an eye on her and have someone by her side to keep under control.

"Sure," I reply.

"What?" Jeanette says in an incredulous tone.

Sheffield turns her head to face Jeanette before saying,

"If what this man says is right, then we've been manipulated this whole time. As much as I hate it, but there is a high chance that His Highness is not what we thought he was."

"Even so," Jeanette responds, "You were always believed to be the one most loyal to him. How come you suddenly want to join his side?"

Sheffield doesn't say anything for a few seconds before responding in a resolute tone,

"There is something that I need to do. I can't stay here forever."

"Besides," Sheffield continues as she casts a glance at me, "If he's telling the truth, then there is no problem in following him. Her safety has been our objective, hasn't it?"

Jeanette's expression changes to that of displeasure as she says,

"I hate the fact that you're right…"

Her? Who are they speaking of? They never mentioned anything about this before. From the sound of it, Joseph isn't aware of this at all.

How interesting.

"Me too," Jeanette says, "I want to see it for myself as well."

Shrugging my shoulders, I reply casually,

"So be it. I'm glad that you two at least think of the lives of those living in this continent." - because I certainly don't.

"What about them?" Jeanette says while pointing at the cell that the males are in.

"Oh, them? They will stay like that until the war ends. Then, I will release them."

"I see," Jeanette mutters while gazing at the blonde-haired guy.

It seems like I need to hasten my plans.